JFTTOTM1
Journey from the Temple on the Mount The following is a collective downtime which occured over the course of a week on the return journey from the Temple on the Mount. ''------- Starring -------'' ' ' Aequitus ''' '''Aurelae Buckler ''' '''Fallynde Maeve Forge ' ' ''-and-'' ' ' Fitz as: ' ' Fitz ' ' After battling dozens of Purple People, saving **Reznor of the 60th** from a slow and painful death, rescuing **Liblub the Frogfolk** from the very same death, and demolishing a theoretically powerful and ancient dog-headed mummy; the 71st emerge from the **Temple of the Mount** wiser, stronger, richer, and perhaps more confused. It’s night, and the day has been *so*, the party camps in the Temple surface for the night. ' ' The following dawn is beautiful. You’re higher than you’ve ever been in this New World - you can see all around you. To the West, you can see your river fork - its origins seem to be from a massive mountain range to the North. Far to the West you can see a darkness - perhaps smoke. ' ' North-West, North, and North-East is a massive mountain range. It runs as far as you can see from one horizon to the other. To the East; dense forest. South, from which you came - hills, obviously. The climb down is much less taxing than the climb up; especially for **Aurelae**. The following are some points of interest from the journey home: ' ' **Fitz** spends the better portion of the week fiddling with his new toy: the Bag of Holding. He’s also pretty obsessed with **Wngas**, but doesn’t match to catch one. ' ' At one point during the week - Fitz, trailing behind the group - everyone realizes that he’s missing. Forge and Buckler backtrack along the path to find the Bag of Holding, but no sign of Fitz. Forge, perhaps knowing Fitz too well, opens the bag; Fitz got a little too curious and climbed inside… and he could not get out. ' ' **Aurelae** has been frantically documenting as much as possible, and continues to do so, each night at camp. ' ' As theoretically risky as these outings can be, the reward is greater than anything else: knowledge!... and **SPIDER SLIPPERS**. Aurelae proves to everyone that she can, in fact, write upside-down and hanging from a tree limb. She even runs up the side of some of those gigantic herd creatures… they don’t notice.’ ' ' **Forge** also is hard at work. By firelight, Forge borrows the scrolls from Maeve - attempting to recreate the magic within, or perhaps just pass the time. The attempts are fruitless to the former, though Forge doesn’t seem to mind. His faint but excited clicking and clacking as he attempts to forge these scrolls is almost soothing amidst the sounds of the Strider’s mating call. ' ' **Reznor** looks better every day. Initially, he was carried, often by **Buckler**, though towards the end of the week he is walking under his own strength. He can’t wait to shave this beard and hair and get back to looking like a Knight… speaking of knights - Buckler! Little Buckler! A knight! He cannot believe it; and he’s so proud. Emotion washes over him everytime he hears the name. ' ' Every day he expresses his gratitude - and shock - that Buckler (of all the people… little Buckler!... a Knight!) took it upon his first order of business to seek out the fate of his brothers. Reznor is convinced that a few more months and he surely would have perished; he is forever indebted to Buckler and the 71st. ' ' Both **Maeve** and **Buckler** spend a good portion of the week assisting and speaking with Reznor. Maeve’s recent awakening seems to have opened her eyes to the Light of the Silver Flame. Between her and Buckler, they fill Rez in on Hardholme’s current state while learning what it was like 11 years ago. ' ' Not *that* much different, according to Rez. The Temple (in Hardholme) was not abandoned and in disrepair - as Buckler explains it. Rez was responsible for bringing a large portion of the literature. He is very excited to get back and get the temple into working shape. He looks forward to seeing Uthar again - the man was like a father to him before he was chosen to come to Hardholme. ' ' He was unhappy with the orphan situation when he arrived in the 60th year; he explains a good portion of the conversation the brothers had when they ventured to the Temple on the Mount was what kind of outreach they could do, to help combat it. The only members of The Silver Flame that ever came to Hardholme were the Knights, though - none of the Ministry. ' ' **Fallynde** and **Aequitus** are enamored with the frogman - **Liblub** - and spend as much time as possible trying to bridge the language gap. Liblub is a remarkably resilient creature with a sunny disposition - as best you can tell. Aequitus is frantic each night, digging through his tomes - he looks for some kind of language common ground from the Old World. ' ' He finds it. Halfway through the journey, he discovers that Liblub speaks some kind of broken dialect of Abyssal. ' ' He doesn’t actually *speak* it a whole lot, he mostly just says Liblub, but it’s clear that he understands Abyssal. Occasionally, he will express something in a more complex, albeit fractured, sentence. It would seem that this is the native language - one of them, anyway - and it would be wise to learn it as best as possible. ' ' He is a Blue Hyla. He’s from across the river, near a lake next to the smoking mountains. He cannot remember it’s name. He expresses no interest in returning home; he is afraid he would not be accepted after being away for so long. He also worries to travel through the Red Hyla’s territory. He wants to make his new him in the city by the hole - Hardholme. ' ' Fallynde, with help of Liblub, manages to wrangle and kill another **Dinnerbird** AKA **Tastybird** AKA **Angrybird** on the final night of the trek. A beautiful night - the sky lights with streaks of fire overhead. They called these meteor showers on Davros, but they weren’t like this; silver and gold streaks light the sky. The 71st, along with Reznor and Liblub, chatter and share food and stories across the campfire. Aurelae can see a faint light - Hardholme - flickering on the horizon. Fallynde stumbles over her words while trying not to flirt with Buckler, who responds with large, bashful smile. Maeve sings softy tenor, Reznor softly baritone - an old Davrosian hymn gently covers the camp. Fitz and Forge tip toe around camp hunting Wngas - Fitz swears he *just* saw one. Aequitus offers Liblub what little moonshine is left - he spits it out and "chuckles frogishly". Everyone bursts into laughter. The camera slowly zooms out, capturing the entire group in a single shot - as everyone laughs by the campfire. Slowly, the screen fades to black.